CHAPTER VIII.
WHAT an error had been committed! How painfully was this realized by Mrs.Markland.How often had she looked forward, with a vague feeling of anxiety, to the time, yet far distant--she had believed--when the heart-strings of her daughter would tremble in musical response to the low-breathed voice of love--and now that time had come.

Alas! that it had come so soon--ere thought and perception had gained matured strength and wise discrimination.

The voice of the charmer was in her ears, and she was leaning to hearken.
Fanny did not join the family at the tea-table on that evening; and on the next morning, when she met her mother, her face was paler than usual, and her eyes drooped under the earnest gaze that sought to read her very thoughts.

It was plain, from her appearance, that her sleep had been neither sound nor refreshing.
Mrs.Markland deemed it wisest to make no allusion to what had occurred on the previous evening.

Her views in regard to answering Mr.Lyon's letter had been clearly expressed, and she had no fear that her daughter would act in opposition to them.